Friday, April 22, 2005

Songs that make you go Eewww"We all have songs that we loathe. Now, thanks to a Waikato University study, you've got a chance to tell the rest of New Zealand what they are. The Waikato University Computer Science Department, as part of a research project into musical dislikes, has launched a Kiwi list of the world's worst songs.Tunes already listed include Racey's Some Girls Do, Song Sung Blue (Neil Diamond), Horse With No Name (America), 50 Cent (In Da Club), Vertigo (U2) and We Built This City (Starship).The music information retrieval research, by lecturers Sally Jo Cunningham and David Bainbridge, aims to develop systems that will allow people to interact more effectively with their music." - MARY ANNE GILL, Waikato Times

"After a recent health scare, ending in a kidney transplant, [Colbert] has decided to sell the shop, which, after thirty-five-odd years of trading, has become one of Dunedin’s longest standing locally owned and operated shops, not to mention Colbert’s pride and joy.

“It’s devastating really, because I just love it”, he says. “It has been such a social thing. Friends come in every day; we drink coffee, talk about music. For me, the best thing about having this shop has been meeting people. But my health is more important”."

Jay Smooth attended and had some good points on the cul de sac that is blogging - "Our music-blogging panel noted an obvious but crucial fact about blogs: they are made for and by people who spend a lot of time on the internet. Among other reasons, this is relevant because when we look for stuff to write about, we tend to draw from the pool of ideas already documented on the internet.Which means that no matter how tight your news.google game is, you're working from a very limited palette.. cuz less than 1% of the world's ideas are documented anywhere on the internet (much less whichever 10 sites comprise your daily routine)."O-Dub was in the area too - his wrap up is here.

Nabeel Zuberi, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Auckland (and BaseFM DJ) was presenting a paper there too, called "Brown Skin, Black Masks: UK Asians Process Black Atlantic Sounds". The Seattle Weekly lists a top ten highlights here, including Cecil Brown's "Did She Do Us Wrong? Mae West as White Negress", Kelsey Cowger's "Reading 'Bamp-chicka-waa-waa': Funk, Porn, and the Vision of John Shaft", and a Panel discussion called How to Rock Like a Black Feminist Critic".

Most long winded title for a paper goes to Kimberly Chun, for “Passing, or Through a Glass Dorkily: Adventures in music writing as an Asian American woman from a small, tourist industry-driven island, transplanted in a San Francisco indie/undie-ground where girls will be boyish drag kings, boys will be girls and sport tighty-whiteys as outerwear, and art-noise comes with side of organic ginger-apple pancakes”.ADDED - Robert Christgau (Village Voice) on EMP Conference.

Monday, April 18, 2005

I predict a riot.So, Shihad have got a new album out soon, called Gay Is The New Straight or something, and I saw the new video for their latest single. It's a song call All the Young Fascists, and features the band dressed like young Black Shirts, all very serious. The lyrics gave the impression that its a heavy, deeply felt political song, and their earnest passion moved me so much I had to run to the bathroom and cry and crap at the same time.Shihad are playing a free concert in Aotea Square for the start of NZ Music Month, late arvo of Sunday May 1st. Imagine if their amped-up mega rock gets the crowd all worked up, then the Police arrive and decide to deal to some of the rowdier elements on the fringes of the audience. Jon Toogood makes some wisecrack about 'wishing that the Police would stop wanking on with their batons', and suddenly everyone in the crowd turns around, sees the cops and before you know it, they are rampaging down Queen St, smashing windows and looting. What a great publicity stunt to launch their album. But that would never happen in our town, right? Right?

Simon Grigg had an interesting post on the NZRadio list, now added to his blog, talking about the next big thing musically to come for down here - worth a read."I'm willing to bet anything that the next NZ artist to break abroad will not be signed to a major. Fat Freddies as yet unreleased album is creating a major stir internationally already, although they're largely ignored by the mainstream here.."

Went and saw Hitch, the new Will Smith romantic comedy at the movies at the weekend. His love interest is played by Eva Mendes, and I have to say, she has a fantastic ass. That is all.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

The Girl From Ipanema wants to get paid in full.From Billboard... The family of the late legendary Brazilian bossa nova guitarist Antonio Carlos Jobim has filed a breach of contract and royalties lawsuit alleging that the rights to many of his famous songs have been wrongly assigned to those who translated them into English.

Lawyers for the widow and three children of Jobim, whose songs include the '60s classic "The Girl From Ipanema," called the practice a "remarkable display of hubris and overreaching."

ADDEDcheck this wicked ad for the new Adidas 1 shoe directed by Spike Jonze.

Friday, April 08, 2005

Some New Zealand music is....www.somenzmusicisshit.org. "New Zealand is a small country, not a musical sub-branch. NZ music don't need no pity. We don't have to give it a headstart. Around half of the music we play on RDU happens to be NZ music.But that's not an act of charity. Our independent radio station has proudly pimped the good stuff - regardless of genre and origin - since 1976. Sure, we have some responsibility to buy drinks for NZ music. But equally, we should tell it when to stop annoying everyone, get in a cab and fuck off home."From Radio RDU. Bloody genius.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Tunes for days.MP3 action all over the show... Boom Selection has some Lady Soverign and unreleased M.I.A. Don't tell! Check Scissorkick for a sneak preview of the new Tosca album.

From the Captain's Crate..."I recently got a pre-release copy of "Gilles Peterson in Africa", where you can find the song Mulatu. It's a 'wikkid' compilation, as to be expected from the 'Best DJ in the World'. Not too many surprises, but strictly solid picks that cover a lot of ground. One disc of 60s and 70's gems, and another of modern club tracks that are keeping the groove alive. If you're a semi-obsessive collector like myself, you'll probably have a lot of the tunes already. If you don't recognize the song titles, then pick it up. Anyway, Gilles came onto my show back in the fall right after "Gilles Peterson in Brazil" came out. It was a real treat for me, and we ended up getting on the topic of Quantic- one of my favorite producers. It turns out that he's currently working on a project with my favorite Ethiopian musical mastermind. I flipped out. I'm still drooling in anticipation of the undoubtedly sick results. You heard it here first (maybe)."

The long rumoured Toy Love album reissue looks likely to drop soon, 15 years after the idea was first suggested, according to the knowledgable Mister Grigg. I've often seen this album on vinyl in Real Groovy and thought of buying it, but its usually way overpriced ($70-100) for an recording that Chris Knox and co have stated they hate (the sound, that is). It's a pretty limp sounding album (compared to their earlier singles), so the reissue should be worth checking if it's been suitably tweaked.

"There was nothing quite like the Saturday afternoons at The Windsor over the spring and summer of 79-80..hundreds of punkish looking teens invading main street of the pristine upper middle class Parnell every week and causing mayhem (not least to my flat..Chris had an unfortunate habit of announcing a party at my place on stage...). Terry Hogan, the man who signed Toy Love to WEA, and myself were running the local record shop, which, in the Stalinistic days of Rob Muldoon, was the only record shop open in Auckland on a Saturday..we closed at 2pm too. In mid 79 we were, thanks to Terry, the first to get the “Rebel” / “Squeeze” single and, with Toy Love playing down the road, we sold a truckload..."Out April 26, preorder thru SmokeCDs.

From Flying Nuns website.."TOY LOVE scared me shitless at first. I was 16 or 17 and too young, too straight and way too uptight for that kind of carry on. But I had mates who adored them. And Jane Walker was a third cousin twice removed of my very best friend... so I was practically a member of the band. Thus, at some stage in the early eighties, I trooped along to see them at the Rock Theatre in Wellington. Of all the gigs I ever saw that was the most terrifying. Boots, safety pins, spiked hair, sneers and attitude. Pogo'ing was violence with a beat. A bootgirl had a t-shirt with "fuck off" written on it. Excuse me? Chris Knox was a punk Peter Cushing... so demonic I wanted garlic and a crucifix. It was a cult meeting. I stood at the back appalled, transfixed and utterly in love. I'd seen the future of rock and roll and it was small, white and demented. Pull down the shades? Christ, I felt like someone had lifted them! What would I pay to hear them remastered and issued afresh on cd? Easy: I'd give my Maserati." - JOHN CAMPBELL, TV3 autocue reader, 2005

ADDED Jim emailed me to say that the original Toy Love was selling in Time Bomb Records in Osaka for 12000 yen (about 160 kiwis). Ouch.

"In an effort to escape its junk-food image, McDonalds, the company that built its success on fries and burgers, now buys more apples than any restaurant chain in the US. This also gives it enormous power over growers - which could lead to fewer varieties and fewer small producers. Gary Younge on how the golden arches could revolutionise an entire industry.

...McDonalds is already the largest buyer of beef, pork and potatoes, and the second-largest buyer of chicken. With volume comes clout: last year, at an apple-marketing conference organised by the US Apple Association, McDonald's director of quality systems announced that if growers wanted to work with the company, they would have to cultivate more of two varieties of apple in particular: cameo and pink lady. Already, the cameo crop in Washington state is 58% larger than it was last year, according to growers in Yakima Valley.The interest of McDonald's in healthy eating is not altruistic: it is partly a case of rebranding and partly a defensive manoeuvre against the future possibility of obesity lawsuits..."

McDonalds quietly shut down its restaurant in Auckland Hospital recently due to poor sales. A fast food outlet in a kids hospital - yep, that sent a great message to kids, right?